Honeywell's Elster selected for smart electricity meter project

The awarded project builds on previous Honeywell Elster successes with Enexis that included the installation of 900,000 smart gas meters in 2015 and a complete meter data collection and meter data management platform for smart metering in 2008. With the addition of the electricity meter award, Enexis will have an end-to-end smart grid solution using Honeywell Elster technology. The contract with Enexis is for five years, plus five optional years.

Enexis, one of three multi-utility Distribution System Operators (DSOs) in the Netherlands, has opted for electricity smart meters based on LTE (long-term evolution) mobile communication technology. To date, Enexis is leading the rollout with over 1.3m smart meters installed.

Elster, acquired by Honeywell in December, delivers complete smart grid and energy management solutions that drive energy efficiency, operational improvements and cost savings for utilities, commercial and industrial customers and consumers.

“We have achieved a trusted and long-term relationship with Enexis based on our technical knowledge and our hands-on approach,” said Ben Vermeulen, managing director Elster Solutions Netherlands. “The implementation and development of our LTE smart electricity meters is helping to future-proof the grid management capabilities in the Netherlands.”

Jan-Willem Janse, Director of smart metering, Enexis, said, “This procurement process has played a key role in ensuring affordable energy over the next five years. Developing the ESMR5.0 LTE smart meter is an integral part of our mass rollout strategy. The technology is more cost-effective compared to the current generation of meters and will help Enexis to minimise rates for their customers in the future.

“Honeywell’s Elster has proved their capabilities over many years of working with us and we look forward to working with them to help achieve our objective of deploying smart meters to most of our customers by 2020. Honeywell’s Elster is involved in all parts of the end-to-end multi-vendor solution and is as such a strategic partner for us.”